Creative planning in Ireland: the role of culture‐led development in Irish planning

This paper attempts to close specific gaps in our understanding of practice and policy concerning culture, planning and development in Ireland. This is a nation in which the development and planning impacts of cultural policy are of increasing importance, yet the state of knowledge of policy and infrastructure remains underdeveloped. The paper begins by charting the evolution of culture‐led development in Western Europe over the last few decades, highlighting the emergence of culture as a central element in both economic and social development strategies. The paper then focuses upon Ireland, reviewing the nation's rich cultural and especially musical heritage, and the direct economic impacts of this. Detailing the successful mobilization of this heritage in search of tourism, the recent incorporation of culture into strategic planning and development initiatives, and the links between culture and development in Dublin, Cork and Galway, the paper concludes that Ireland is in a strong position to avail itself of the positive social and economic impacts of planning for culture and creativity.     

International competition,urban governance and planning projects: Malmö, Birmingham and Lille

In recent years competition between European cities has increased. This article looks at the implications for planning projects in the context of changes in urban governance. Growth machine and urban regime theories are introduced and three case studies explored in detail. Plans and development projects resulting from the arrival of the Oresund bridge in Malmö are examined. In Malmö, public planning is being bypassed in favour of local corporatist objectives and this experience is compared to the approaches developed in the strongly competitive cities of Birmingham and Lille. International comparison reveals the national distinctiveness of the responses to competition. In Birmingham there has been a local political reaction to the economic development‐led city centre strategy, but British central‐local relations restrict the ability of the city to change course. Developments in Lille reflect an integrated public sector approach to the development and marketing of the city and its region. In the three cases social and environmental issues have been raised but the imperatives of competition remain dominant.     

Folklore’s Timeless Past,Ireland’s Present Past,and the Perception of Rural Houses in Early Historic Ireland

This study examines how the archaeology of historic Ireland has been interpreted. Two approaches to the history and archaeology of Ireland are identified. The first, the timeless past, has its roots in a neo-Lamarckian view of the past. This perspective was particularly developed in the work of geographer and ethnographer, Estyn Evans. The second view, associated in particular with a nationalist approach to Ireland’s past, looked to the west of the country where it was believed the culture had been preserved largely unchanged and in its purest form. The continuing impact of these frameworks upon the interpretation of rural settlement in the period 1200–1700 is examined. It is argued that historians and archaeologists alike have underestimated the quality of buildings.     

Seeing like an investor: urban development planning,financialisation, and investors’ perceptions of London as an investment space

There is a growing orthodoxy that since the global financial crisis European policy-makers and planning systems have become more dependent on inward investment and the availability of global finance to fund welfare services and projects. This process of financialisation, it is claimed, is driven by the needs of developers and investors, who are focused on maximizing returns and limiting their social and economic liabilities. Planning agencies and traditional territory-based arrangements are viewed with increasing suspicion, as standing in the way of investment and acting as a brake on much needed house-building and regeneration. However, in this paper, drawing on detailed research with investors and developers in London, we argue that there needs to be a stronger focus in academic and policy writing on the multiple, variegated, and diverse calculations and framings that private sector actors take when making investment decisions. Too often their perspectives are caricatured and/or over-simplified. We show that and imaginations of planning and regulation are complex and that many firms have realized that market success results from becoming more deeply embedded in the local political, social, and regulatory environments in which they are investing. A greater understanding of these multiple forms of calculation, in turn, opens up opportunities for the maintenance and/or implementation of more effective forms of territorially-based soft and hard regulation. The paper concludes by outlining a broader research agenda for planning and urban studies.     

Tourism development and cultural conflict: the case of ‘Nazareth 2000’

In areas that are characterized by political, national, cultural and religious conflicts, issues concerning conservation and development become particularly complex. One prominent example of this tension can be seen in events that have taken place over the last decade in the city of Nazareth, which hosts some of Christianity's holiest sites. Until the mid-twentieth century most of the city's residents were Christian. In the past several decades however, Muslims have come to form the majority of the population. Against this backdrop, Nazareth began to prepare for the millennium year, including the formulation of the ‘Nazareth 2000’ plan for tourism development in the city. Unfortunately, the city's numerous complexities rapidly surfaced, with one of the most prominent examples being the bitter struggle around the city's newly planned main square. This paper examines tourism development for the city in conditions of such cultural conflict.     

Female leadership and welfare state reform: the development of Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme

The Howard Government’s commitment to supporting the male breadwinner policy model was a major barrier to the efforts of female political leaders to influence the development of a national paid parental leave scheme. Associated with this model was the argument that paid parental leave ‘discriminated’ against non-working women and devalued their contribution to society as mothers. Despite a change of government in 2007 this argument remained influential through the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave (2009). Key to the eventual legislation of the scheme in 2010 was female leaders’ strategy of aligning with, rather than disrupting, this narrative. As such, women in trade unions, political parties, women’s groups and the bureaucracy framed paid parental leave as supporting women in their maternal roles as it allowed them the financial breathing room to stay at home for longer with their newborn.     

The ‘natures’ of planning: evolving conceptualizations of nature as expressed in urban planning theory and practice

Over the course of the past century, the idea of nature in the city has become increasingly intricate, evolving from being viewed as a refuge separate from the city to being understood as an essential component of dynamic urban systems. As such, attempts are currently being made to ‘re-nature’ cities to support local and global ecosystems, increase human well-being and address environmental issues such as climate change. While the literature has examined changing assumptions about society–nature relationships in planning, a dearth of knowledge exists relating to the changing conceptualization of nature’s relationship with the ‘city’ and how this has influenced how urban planning with respect to ‘nature’ has evolved in both theory ‘and’ practice. In this paper, we address this lacuna by tracing the history of the entwined relationship between nature and city planning. The conceptual framework developed from this review is subsequently employed as an analytical lens through which to investigate an illustrative case study of planning for nature in Dublin City, Ireland. The paper concludes by reflecting on how exploring the natures of planning provides scope for greater critical attention to what we do as planners when we seek to address the challenge of safeguarding nature through policy.     

The Gothic and the Gaelic: Exploring the Place of Castles in Ireland’s Celtic Revival

This paper examines the conflict in early nineteenth century Ireland that emerged between the way castles were portrayed in academia on the one hand and romantic literature on the other. Focusing on a key text of the Celtic Revival, Sydney Owensons The Wild Irish Girl, the paper explores how this novel (with its strong gothic influences) established a lens through which Gaelic Ireland could be understood and how this in turn affected the representation of castles. The second part of the paper ties these themes into an analysis of the relationship between architecture, literature and identity in the occupation of Leap Castle, Co. Offaly during the changing political climate of nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland.     

Heritage views through urban exploration: the case of ‘Abandoned Berlin’

This article frames the practice of urban exploration and its interest towards abandoned places from a heritage perspective. It is argued that most urban explorers prioritise the excitement of trespassing and the creation of their own narratives over the historic importance of the sites they explore. These ‘performative’ explorers avoid deliberate attention that may lead to vandalism or touristification – an alternative way of ‘preserving by not preserving’ that celebrates decay and assumes the sites’ progressive loss. To achieve this, they prefer not to disclose exact locations, creating a divergence towards a minority of practitioners who prefer to collect data on history and current state of conservation to make it public. Attention is paid to these ‘communicative’ explorers, whose documentation renders abandoned places visible, opening further debates about a more inclusive preservation and memorialisation. By distinguishing both heritage views, the objective of this article is to contribute to the enlargement of Heritage Studies by incorporating urban exploration as a space for reflection between loss and bottom-up preservation and interpretation.     

Tibetan livelihoods and the ‘Great Development of the West’:Modernization,pastoral resources,and the ‘urban future’ of the grasslands

1.Introduction Rural livelihoods in Tibet2 have,during the last fifteen years,undergone fast and profound processes of economic transformation and state-led modernization,both in the TAR and the Eastern parts of the Tibetan plateau.Local life styles have changed at a pace rarely seen in an area where people subsisted,until the late 1990s,almost entirely on nomadic mobile livestock production.New local socio-economic structures with peculiar characteristics have emerged.They include the decline of traditional livestock-based (mobile) pastoralism;the emergence of a ‘post-pastoral’ economy based on the extraction of medicinal fungi for Chinese and international markets;and the emergence,often from below,of new arrangements governing rangeland access and usage.     

Idées and mentalités; the case of the catholic reform movement in France

The connection between Godwin and Fénelon has traditionally been restricted to the famous and controversial moment in the first edition of Political Justice (1793) in which Godwin presents an example of the interdependence of rationality and ethical action. This paper argues, however, that Fénelon, and particularly his political and educational treatise Telemachus (1699), plays a significant role in a number of Godwin's subsequent fictional works. Employing Telemachus to explore the theories of education presented by Godwin in the various editions of Political Justice and The Enquirer (1797), this paper explores the manner in which Godwin's version of the Enlightenment transcendence of pedagogical power comes up against its limits. Reading this issue in relation to Godwin's argument, in ‘Of Choice in Reading’, that literature remains outside of socio-ethical corruption, three of Godwin's major novels are shown to demonstrate that Telemachus provides the chance for meta-textual moments in which the appeal to reason (the reader's rational capacity or ‘private judgement’) is at once reflected upon and produced. Reading educational theories and problems into Godwin's major fiction in this fashion helps to clarify aspects of the Godwinian (or ‘Jacobin’) novel.     

‘Phrases Make History Here’: Churchill,Ireland and the Rhetoric of Empire

In the history of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial 1946–48, it is generally held that the United States was the dominating presence: General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, not only convened the court, but also openly insisted on an exoneration of the Japanese emperor; and American lawyers headed the prosecution team and assumed much of the workload for the defence. However, government documents, including correspondence from and to the participants, show that the Commonwealth governments exerted significant influence in many crucial matters, such as the drafting of the indictment and the judgment of the court. This article questions the standard emphasis on America's role and takes a fresh look at the relationship between the United States and the British Commonwealth of Nations.     

Household knights,chamber knights and king’s knights: the development of the royal knight in fourteenth-century England

The fourteenth century witnessed a considerable change in the way in which knights were retained in royal service in England. The system of retaining ‘household knights’, which had been in operation since at least the twelfth century, gave way to a new system based around the retaining of ‘chamber knights’ and ‘king’s knights’. These new ranks were retained in different ways to the household knights and often performed different functions. Consequently, the place they occupied in fourteenth-century kingship was markedly different. Despite the significance of this development, the scholarship on it has been limited and often contradictory. This article offers a detailed reassessment of how and why this development occurred and what its impacts were for the fourteenth-century polity.